A new strategy for a new era of cybersecurity
It is understood how much impact the shift to remote and hybrid working has had on organisations’ vulnerability to cyber-attacks. We have looked before at how the threat landscape has increased with data distributed and less secure1, as a result of employees using personal devices and home networks, meaning organisations face an increasingly challenging cyber ecosystem.
But while businesses are preparing for permanent hybrid/flexible working models, successful cyber resilience requires more than private sector buy-in. There needs to be regulation and guidance that drives adoption, collaboration and continued innovation. Without this, the UK cannot thrive in a digital future.
The UK’s National Cyber Strategy for 2016-21 offered this clear guidance and saw the country become a leading innovator in cyber technologies. With the release of the updated strategy for 2022 onwards2, informing the Government’s approach for the next five years, there is an opportunity to build on the progress made.
For the UK Cyber Strategy to succeed, the UK must grow its capabilities in every area of the country…levelling up all regions.
The vision of this new strategy is that by 2030, the UK will continue to grow its cyber capabilities and become: a more secure and resilient nation, better prepared for evolving threats; an innovative, prosperous digital economy, with opportunity more evenly spread across the country; a Science and Tech Superpower, securely harnessing transformative technologies in support of a greener, healthier society; and a more influential and valued partner on the global stage.
These goals align closely with the existing 10 Tech Priorities3, which commit the UK Government to – amongst other targets – rolling out world-class digital infrastructure nationwide, unlocking the power of data, building a tech savvy nation, and keeping the UK safe and secure online. None of these targets can be achieved without a resilient cybersecurity framework that protects Critical National Infrastructure, public services, industry, and individuals.
Dell Technologies has the capabilities, expertise and reach to play a role in advancing the UK’s national cybersecurity agenda. Our focus on intrinsic security – an approach that is resilient, intelligent, and automated, with security built into an entire ecosystem, from endpoints to cloud deployments – can help us to prepare the national infrastructure for growing threats.
Protecting infrastructure and industry
Our Critical National Infrastructure is a vital national asset that supports our economy, delivers public services and drives economic growth. It includes every place where data is processed, in transit or stored – from external data centres to the Edge.
As emerging technologies such as 5G and Artificial Intelligence become more integrated, and more IT infrastructure becomes deployed at the Edge5, and as data travels worldwide between our on-premises systems, the cloud, business partners, and remote workers, we need to be prepared for threats from any place at any time.
This means working with international partners, to ensure that increased global data access and flows do not increase the security risks facing the UK.
The average time it takes for an organisation to discover malware in their system is more than six months
It also requires zero-trust architecture6, which focuses security on the data traveling along this intricate pipeline. Instead of trusting specific devices or IP addresses, it forces all users and devices to authenticate themselves when accessing sensitive data and applications. This will help to prevent bad actors breaching our critical infrastructure and reduce the number of cyber attacks on specific sectors, industries and individuals in the process.
With a secure national infrastructure in place, the strategy aims for all government organisations to be resilient to known attack methods by the end of the decade.
For the UK Cyber Strategy to succeed, the UK must grow its capabilities in every area of the country. The new plan shows a growing focus on Cyber across the country, levelling up all regions.
Currently, London and the South East is home to 45% of sector employment and 85% of external investment7, but it is not sustainable for the UK to thrive in its cyber innovation unless opportunities are extended and opened up to talent right across the UK. The National Cyber Strategy commits to facilitating better integration between regional cyber networks across the UK, which Dell Technologies can play a role in as a partner to Plexal since 20188, and a number of initiatives underway to accelerate digital inclusion9 across the country. We are deeply integrated into organisations in both the UK and globally, to build secure infrastructure.
With a levelled-up cyber ecosystem, more organisations in every industry and every part of the UK will have the tools and talent available to them to manage their cyber risks and take action to improve their cyber resilience.
And while it is the responsibility of businesses to protect their employees and customers from cyber harm, there is a role for individuals to play in protecting the organisations they work for and interact with from breaches. Security awareness platform CybSafe have found that 90% of data breaches are caused by human error and effective cybersecurity is rooted in behavioural change.
The National Cyber Strategy commits to providing support that will drive behavioural change within organisations, developing market incentives to encourage effective cyber security practises. This will motivate businesses to invest in education and training solutions for their employees, to try and reduce human error10. But if we accept that you can never eliminate human mistakes entirely and that some level of cyber breaches are inevitable, the most important investment organisations can make and the key mindset shift we need to have is to encourage organisations to focus on recovery alongside prevention.
The average time it takes for an organisation to discover malware in their system is more than six months and as a result11, those who do not have recovery solutions that can get them back online quickly, can face months of downtime before they are fully operational.
Dell Technologies’ cyber recovery solutions12 protect and isolate critical data from ransomware and other sophisticated threats, helping organisations to identify suspicious activity quickly and in turn, recover faster. With our expertise and capabilities, we play a significant role in fostering the mindset shifts and investments that need to be made in our infrastructure, public services and industries, to protect against ransomware and cyber-attacks.
Making Progress
We welcome the commitments introduced by the Government in the new National Cyber Strategy. Over the past five years, the UK has demonstrated high levels of cyber innovation and laid the foundations that we can build on. As we work towards 2030, emerging technologies are becoming increasingly crucial to our infrastructure, while digitisation continues to accelerate around the world, ensuring the cyber threats we face extend beyond borders.
To best protect everyone, regulation must bring cyber clusters across the UK together, with strategies that allow for collaboration and innovation. With our significant reach to customers around the globe, Dell Technologies is already playing our part, with leading intrinsic security and zero trust solutions that are protecting our infrastructure and industries.
To find out more about how Dell Technologies’ cybersecurity capabilities and solutions can deliver better outcomes for your business, visit our website here.
References:
1 Dell Trust in Hybrid Working
2 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1040805/National_Cyber_Strategy_-_FINAL_VERSION.pdf
3 https://dcms.shorthandstories.com/Our-Ten-Tech-Priorities/index.html
4 https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-gb/what-we-do/emerging-technology/security.htm#tab0=0
5 How Emerging Technologies Will Optimize the Use of Data
6 Dell Technologies Leadership Collaboration
7 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/962413/UK_Cyber_Security_Sectoral_Analysis__2021_.pdf
8 https://audioboom.com/posts/7891985-saj-huq-director-of-innovation-plexal
9 Dell Technologies Leadership Collaborationf
10 https://www.cybsafe.com/press-releases/human-error-to-blame-for-9-in-10-uk-cyber-data-breaches-in-2019/
11 Dell Trust in Hybrid Working
12 https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-gb/data-protection/cyber-recovery-solution.htm#tab0=0
